Rachel Sheffer

The Michigan Daily has a nice article about Rachel Sheffer and her performance in the Ohio State game on Thursday:

Ohio State center Jantel Lavender is a two-time All-American and a three-time Big Ten player of the year. However, in Thursday’s game, she wasn't even the best center on the court.
That distinction belongs to sophomore Rachel Sheffer, who led the Michigan women’s basketball team to a stunning 69-66 victory over the Buckeyes. Sheffer, who is only 6-foot-1, disrupted anything Lavender tried to do on offense. She constantly poked and prodded the 6-foot-4 Lavender, forcing the ball out of her hands or keeping the ball away from her all together. Lavender came into the game averaging 23 points, and Sheffer held her to just 14.

Not only did Sheffer effectively shut down one of the best players in the country, but she was also able to score on Lavender. Sheffer scored a career-high 23 points on 54 percent shooting, including three 3-pointers.

Next: Minnesota

Michigan travels to Minnesota to play the Golden Gophers at 3:00pm (ET) today.  Minnesota is currently 1-7 in the Big Ten, but that record is a bit misleading.  Most of their conference losses have been close (5 were by 8 points or less) and they are coming off their first conference win against Northwester on Thursday.

Minnesota is led by junior guard Kiara Buford (15.4 ppg) and sophomore guard Leah Cotton (13.9 ppg). For Michigan a big key will be to play focused and try to avoid a let down after their big comeback win against Ohio State.

ESPN Article on Coach Borseth

The whole thing can be found here.

"We're probably more similar in style [this season] to what we've been in the Green Bay era," Borseth said. "We're doing a lot more things that resemble what we did in Green Bay. … I think kids now are starting to figure it out. They're starting to get quicker, get a little bit more aggressive, get more used to the style. It will be interesting to see as the year rolls along if they can keep up this pace and play with the same aggressiveness."

and

Perhaps that single-minded focus is partly why he still seems like a bit of an odd fit at a place like Michigan as he talks of learning just how much recruiting determines success at this level, the salesmanship involved in fighting with other major-conference programs over the same pool of national-level recruits. Michigan is his home state, and the compensation can't be bad, but from the outside, it's still possible to wonder if he wasn't happiest scouring the small towns of Wisconsin and then taking his and beating yours.

"There's days when I say to myself, 'What did I get myself into?' But every time I get back on the court, you get back your competitive juices and they flow and you try to do the same thing you've always done," Borseth said. "It's all I know how to do. If I had to sell furniture or insurance or anything of that nature, I think I'd have to fold up tent.

Video Highlights from MGoBlue TV

Carmen Reynolds

From the annarbor.com profile of Carmen Reynolds:

Borseth watched Reynolds again in the last game of the day. This time, he saw her making 3-pointers.

“She was a complement for a lot of things we do offensively,” Borseth said. “And it’s proved to be right on.”

That day, her father, Jim Reynolds, pointed to the Michigan coaches in the stands.

Father and daughter laughed. This, after all, was a family that trades Christmas cards with Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel because Jim Reynolds had been recruited by Tressel as a high school football player and played for Tressel ended up at Miami (Ohio).

The whole family was Ohio State fans. Her brother, Cody, played lacrosse for the Buckeyes.
Jim and Carmen even had a conversation when she was first considering playing college basketball about what would happen if Michigan was her only scholarship offer.
“She said, ‘Well, I guess I’d be a Wolverine,’” Jim said.

Not that the Reynolds expected it. There they were, two weeks after Borseth saw her in Cincinnati on an unofficial visit to Michigan. Then Borseth made his offer.

Hours later, Carmen committed to Michigan, the only major conference school to make an offer.
“I was a huge Ohio State fan,” Carmen said. “And we’re like ‘What the heck, we’ll go up and visit it.’ I remember going in and thinking I wasn’t going to like it because I was an Ohio State fan, but I fell in love immediately coming up to campus, met some of the coaches, meeting some of the girls on the team.

“Just walking around campus, learning about the academics, everything. This was the school, and I converted immediately to a Wolverine.”

Coverage of last night's win

From ESPN:

Rachel Sheffer was calm as she approached the free throw line with a chance to help Michigan earn a memorable win over Ohio State.
She capped a career-best 23-point performance with a pair of free throws with 29 seconds to play to help the Wolverines beat the Buckeyes 69-66.Sheffer's free throws put the Wolverines up 67-66 after they trailed by 14 early in the second half."Just like every day in practice, no pressure really," she said to herself.

From the Columbus Dispatch:

The Wolverines already had served notice defensively that center Jantel Lavender was in for a long evening. The three-time Big Ten Player of the Year wore two, three and even four Michigan defenders every time the ball went inside.
Although her 14 rebounds allowed her to set a Big Ten career record of 1,279, Lavender scored 10 points and was a nonfactor at the end.
"I wasn't real happy with our first half other than we made shots," Ohio State coach Jim Foster said. "We never established Jantel. And we never established her throughout the course of the game. We were taking too many outside shots. And again, you've got to make foul shots."

The Michigan Daily

The Michigan women’s basketball team defied history last night.
After trailing by 14 points early in the second half, the Wolverines climbed all the way back to beat the six-time defending Big Ten champion Buckeyes, 69-66. It was the first time in Michigan women’s basketball history that they swept the two-game season series with Ohio State.
And it was arguably one of the most hard-fought victories in Wolverine history too.
With the Buckeyes' 6-foot-4, two-time All American Jantel Lavender lurking in the post, Michigan knew it would have to key its defense down low.
And for the most part, the Wolverines succeeded. Lavender was held to just 10 points, which ties her career low for points in a game. Michigan hounded her in the post all night long, often putting three or four defenders in her face as soon as she touched the ball.

:

Michigan is tied for first in the Big 10 half way through the season:

Michigan        6-2
Wisconsin      6-2
Penn St.         6-2
Michigan St.   6-2
Ohio St.        4-4
Purdue          4-4
Iowa             4-4
Northwestern     3-5
Illinois            2-6
Indiana          2-6
Minnesota     0-8

Michigan 69 OSU 66

A huge win for the women tonight after being down by 13 at half time.  First win in Columbus since 2001, and first ever regular season sweep of Ohio States by Michigan. 

Next: Ohio State

Tonight Michigan travels to Columbus for a rematch against 24th ranked Ohio State.  Michigan won the first meeting 64-51 on December 30th, ending a 15 game losing streak against the Buckeyes.

Despite the Wolverines success this year, this game will be a challenge - Ohio State will undoubtedly be looking for "payback" as well as wanting to move up in the standings. Michigan is tied for 3rd in the Big 10, one game out of first place while Ohio State is alone in fifth place one back of Michigan and Penn State.

The key for Michigan will be to try and limit Ohio State's main threats (Lavender, Prahalis and freshman Ashley Adams) while being patient on offense.  OSU showed in the December 30th game that if they frustrated they can become beatable.

Game time is 7:00pm and the game will be on the Big Ten network.

I'm hoping to get back to regular posting as things are starting to settle down a bit for me - there has certainly been a lot going on this season.